Haworth: village of the Brontës
Wuthering Heights, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and
‘We no sooner reached the foot of the hill
than we had to begin to mount again, over a
narrow, rough stone-paved road; the horses’
feet seemed to catch at boulders, as if climbing.
When we reached the top of the village there
was apparently no outlet, but we were directed
to drive into an entry which just admitted the
gig; we wound round in the entry and then
saw the church close at hand, and we entered
on the short lane which led to the parsonage
gateway. Here Charlotte was waiting, having
caught the sound of the approaching gig’.
So wrote Ellen Nussey, describing a visit to
Haworth and her great friend Charlotte Brontë
in 1833. Her experience of arrival at the village
has been shared by visitors ever since: the
steep hill is still a challenge and the way to the
Parsonage, home of the Brontë family, remains
the same.
Haworth is, of course, best known for its
association with the Brontës. Patrick Brontë
was appointed curate in 1820 and the family
took up residence in the Parsonage. Here
The Parsonage (11)
Townend Farm (4)
The wealthier or higher status inhabitants
lived in houses which introduced new styles of
architecture to the village: the Parsonage (11),
built in 1779, has a symmetrical elevation and
sash windows, in contrast to the mullioned
windows of the cottages, and Woodlands (22),
the home of the family that ran Bridgehouse
Mills, has a fine restrained classical front.
Woodlands (22)
A very important part of life in 19th-century
Haworth was played by religion. Patrick
Brontë preached for forty years in St Michael’s
Church, which in his time was largely an 18th-
century building, although retaining the tower
of the chapel established in 1655. Today’s
church (9) dates from a rebuilding of 1879-
80. Patrick may have felt beleaguered in
Haworth, however, for the Church of England
was overshadowed by the Nonconformist
denominations. In 1851, Patrick could count
on 500 adherents, but three times as many
villagers attended the three chapels – Wesleyan
and Baptist – which flourished in Haworth (2,
3, 19). Competition extended to education:
were written the famous novels – Jane Eyre,
others – which shook the literary world in the
middle of the 19th century. At first, the identity
of the authors was hidden from the public,
but soon the names of Charlotte, Emily and
Anne Brontë – and of Haworth – were known
across the country. The family was touched by
tragedy, however. Their brother Branwell died
in 1848, aged 31, Emily soon followed, aged 30,
Anne died in 1849, aged 29, and Charlotte died
in 1855 at the age of 38. Their father Patrick
lived on until 1861, aged 84. He had buried all
his children.
Haworth lies four miles from Keighley and
even further from the bigger towns of Halifax
and Bradford. The village climbs the side of
a steep hill and behind it, stretching to the
Pennine watershed, rise the lonely, desolate
moors so beloved of the Brontë sisters and
made famous by Emily’s great novel Wuthering
Heights. Due to its remoteness and because
it lay on an important trans-Pennine turnpike
road, Haworth was rather more than a rural
village, for it served a large hinterland. In the
the Methodists ran a school in the village
from 1821 and in 1832 the Church of England
responded by building a National School (10),
close to the church and parsonage. Patrick
Brontë was instrumental in founding the school
and Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell all
taught there. Only with the building of the
Central Board Schools in Butt Lane (16) in
1895 was non-denominational education
provided for the children of Haworth.
Despite the widespread ignorance which
Patrick Brontë complained about, the village did
enjoy a social and cultural life. A Philosophical
Society was formed in 1780 and orchestral and
choral concerts were held in the church and
the Black Bull. Brass bands from the mills held
concerts and the Haworth Brass Band, formed
in 1854 and originating as the Springhead mill
band, still meets in rooms next to the Fleece
Inn on Main Street. The improvement of the
working man was advanced by the founding of
a Mechanics’ Institute in 1849, offering a library,
a newsroom and a lecture hall. Both Patrick
and Charlotte Brontë were staunch supporters
of the Institute, which moved in 1853 to new
premises, now the Villette Café, in Main Street
(13). The Freemasons were active in Haworth:
Victoria Hall (20)
Shops on Main Street (13)
time of the Brontës it had booksellers, grocers,
tailors, drapers, a clockmaker and surgeons.
Around the miniature square at the church
steps (8) were an apothecary, a wine and spirit
merchant, an ironmonger (who doubled as
a postmaster), a temperance hotel and four
inns (the Black Bull, the Old White Lion, the
Cross, and the King’s Arms). In among these
businesses were more humble trades: many
boot and clog makers, a blacksmith and joiners,
plasterers and stone masons. The atmosphere
was captured vividly by a 19th-century visitor:
staying at the Black Bull, she was ‘just looking
from the window which gave on the square.
Indifferent to the rain, the people clattered by in
their wooden shoes. Two toddlers, bare necked
and bare armed, stood hand-in-hand, looking
wistfully into the window of a bake shop, where
The Black Bull inn (8)
Branwell Brontë was a member of the Three
Graces Lodge, which met in rooms in Newell
Hill (now Lodge Street) (14). Another form
of association is represented by Victoria Hall
(20), adjacent to the Hall Green Baptist Chapel.
Built in 1854, the hall provided a meeting place
for the Oddfellows Friendly Society, formed
to provide help and support to its members.
Nearby, in Minnie Street, is the Drill Hall (21),
built in 1873 to provide training facilities for
the 42nd Company of the West Yorkshire Rifle
Volunteers who were renowned for their
shooting prowess, winning many competitions
in the late 19th century.
Alongside the industry, the commerce, the
religion and social life was one dominant
presence in the village in the time of the
Brontës: death. Haworth was a notoriously
unhealthy place, as bad, it was reported, as the
worst slums of London. A poor water supply,
no proper provision for sewage, harsh working
conditions and perhaps even seepage from
the churchyard burials were to blame. Infant
mortality reached horrifying levels in the middle
years of the century: 41% of children died
a tempting array of loaves round and square, of
tea cakes and currant buns and seed and plum
cakes, riveted their gaze. The vicar passed by
with the Curate in earnest conversation … a
huge cart horse struggled upward with a heavy
load, slipping backward almost every step of
the steep way, while the carter in dingy smock
walked at his head and sought to ease and
encourage his beast. Grimy mill hands passed,
taciturn and grave; a man with a squealing pig
had difficulties in driving the porker, who bolted
into every lane and doorway … the draper
next door came to his window to watch the
pig’s divagations’.
Many of the buildings on Main Street were
built as shops, with large display windows –
some with handsome stone surrounds – to
attract customers. The village had a Co-
operative Society with a shop, once in the
The Co-operative Stores (15)
central ‘square’ but later further down Main
Street, where its premises, built in 1897, proudly
display the inscription ‘Haworth Industrial
Cooperative Society Limited Central Stores’
(15). The village also had a branch of the
Yorkshire Penny Bank, which opened in 1860
and by 1894 had moved to what is now the
Visitor Information Centre (7), adding the
prominent turret on the older building to
proclaim its importance.
In the time of the Brontës, Haworth was very
much a working village. The main industry
before they were six years old. In St Michael’s
churchyard, one memorial records that Joseph
Heaton buried seven infant children, and there
are many similar gravestones in the village’s
burial grounds. For those who survived infancy,
life expectancy was around 44 years. The
Brontë family itself illustrated the devastating
impact of disease and sickness: none of the six
children died in infancy, but none reached the
age of forty.
West Lane Methodist Chapel graveyard (2)
For Haworth, nothing would be the same
after the Brontës. The village expanded
after the opening of the Keighley and Worth
Valley Railway (26) in 1867 and many of the
local mills grew into large steam-powered
factories. Brow, curiously in the valley below
the village, became a distinct settlement,
industrial in character. For the village itself,
on the hill above, literary pilgrimages became
an important source of income, especially
after the foundation of the Brontë Society in
1893. Today, the Brontë association and the
preservation of the village largely as it was in
the middle decades of the 19th century, make
Haworth a popular and rewarding place to visit.
A late-19th-century depiction of wool combing (detail from SC Lister's statue in Manningham)
was the production of worsted yarn and cloth:
worsteds were fine cloths using long-fibre wool.
The work was mainly carried out in factories:
the biggest in Haworth was Bridgehouse Mills
(24), on the Bridgehouse Beck in the valley
below the village. The mid-19th-century
census returns show that many households had
fathers, mothers, sons and daughters employed
in the textile industry. In 1851, the 60-year
old John Mitchell and his wife, of Hall Green,
worked as handloom weavers, a vanishing
occupation by that time. They probably had
their looms in their cottage. Two daughters,
however, worked as powerloom weavers in
one of the local mills. In addition, a son was a
wool comber. This last process, which involved
the combing of raw wool to produce fibres
ready for spinning, was still carried out in the
houses of the workers. It was an arduous and
dangerous occupation, for it required charcoal
or coal stoves to heat the combs. These stoves
were rarely extinguished, windows were rarely
opened and fumes caused illness and death.
Memorial to Joseph Heaton's children (9)
Conservation in Haworth
The heart of Haworth is a conservation area
which contains over 80 listed buildings and a
significant number of others which contribute
greatly to the village’s character. Haworth
Conservation Area has a chaotic but cohesive
Haworth
Village of the Brontës
Many of the cottages in the village today were
once used for wool combing.
Historic Haworth is largely a product of the
19th century. The Brontës knew a village that
was a scene of constant building activity: new
houses and shops were always in the course of
construction and old houses were replaced by
new. The cottages are substantially built of local
sandstone and gritstone, with dressed stone
surrounds to the doorways and mullioned
windows in characteristic Pennine style. Some
houses were built back-to-back and some
had a main dwelling at one level and a cellar
dwelling below: a short back-to-back terrace on
West Lane (5) has four cellar dwellings below
the houses on the main street front. Not all
of Haworth’s houses, however, were relatively
new in the time of the Brontës. The Old Hall
at Hall Green (18) is an excellent example of Village of the Brontës
17th-century Yorkshire Pennine housing and
on North Street is another fine 17th-century
house with its aisled barn alongside (4). Haworth
charm; buildings of different size, type and age
are set at different angles and distances from
the street, but are nevertheless united by their
level of preservation and by the colour of the
stone from which they are built. Together they
reflect the gradual and organic development
and the diverse assortment of facilities,
employers, people and institutions once found
in an industrious, self-sufficient Pennine hill
village. They also provide the very fabric of
the present-day living village, which is home
to a thriving community and is also a popular
and friendly tourist destination. In partnership
with Bradford Council, local groups and
business owners, Historic England is working
to maintain the character of Haworth and its
authentic atmosphere, for visitors and residents
alike, by assisting and advising on schemes of
maintenance and through the sympathetic Engraving of Haworth of circa 1860-80 (Courtesy of the Brontë Society)
management of change. The aim is to protect
and enhance Haworth, and its international Acknowledgements:
reputation as a high-quality tourist destination, This leaflet has been produced by Historic England to promote Haworth’s rich history and built
for generations to come. heritage. Work has been assisted by members of the Brontë Society, particularly Christine Went,
formerly the Society’s Heritage and Conservation Officer; Ann Dinsdale, Collections Manager; and
Sarah Laycock, Librarian. Mick Lockwood of Hall Green Baptist Chapel kindly gave access to the
building. Help was also received from staff at the Keighley Local Studies Library and from local
historian Steven Wood. The text was researched and written by Colum Giles.
Further reading:
The history of Haworth is described in some excellent recent publications, including:
Baumber, M 2009 A History of Haworth from earliest times. Lancaster: Carnegie
Whitehead, S R 2006 The Brontës’ Haworth. Kendal: Ashmount
Wood, S 2009, 2011 Haworth Oxenhope and Stanbury from old photographs. Stroud: Amberley (2
volumes)
Wood, S and Palmer, I 2009 Haworth through time. Stroud: Amberley
The story of the Brontës is explored in numerous publications, the most extensive being:
Barker, J 2010 The Brontës. London: Abacus
Places to visit:
Brontë Parsonage Musuem, Church Street, Haworth (http://www.bronte.org.uk/)
Keighley and Worth Valley Railway (http://www.kwvr.co.uk/)
© Historic England 2016
All photographs © Historic England
The square (8)
Key buildings and sites in Haworth members who are buried in a vault beneath
the floor. The crowded churchyard contains
1 Sun Inn, West Lane: in the mid-19th many gravestones of interest. Boundary of Conservation Area

Lo
rdL
century turnpike road tolls were collected

an
e
here.
To Keighley
2 West Lane Methodist Chapel: the chapel,
built in 1758 and rebuilt in 1846, has been
demolished, the congregation moving to the
adjacent schoolroom of 1853. At the rear is

Bridgehouse Beck
the chapel graveyard.

ne
La
es
To Keighley

olm
yth
4

M
MILL HEY
et
th Stre
Nor P
2 3

Change Gate
1
ane We
estL st Lan
10 National School, Church Street: the W e
5
little school house was built in 1832 as a
Sunday school with funds from the National
3 West Lane Baptist Chapel: founded in Society and from public subscriptions, P 7
To Stanbury 6
the 1750s, but provided with a new chapel generated through the efforts of Patrick
27
in 1844. Behind the chapel is an extensive Brontë. Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell

Raw
school. all taught here. 10 Haworth P
8

don
Church Street
11 9 12 Station

Roa
26

d
Graveyard

Ma
in
Str
ee
t
15 The Co-operative Stores, Main Street: 21 Drill Hall, Minnie Street: built in 1873 for 16
built in 1897, it originally provided drapers’, the 42nd Company of the West Yorkshire
14

Station Road
butchers’ and grocers’ departments on the Rifle Volunteers. BROW

ground floor and an ‘assembly room’ on the Lane

11 The Parsonage, Church Street: this is Butt
top floor. Next to the Co-op, Nos. 25-27
the centrepiece for visitors interested in the were probably built half a century earlier as 13
4 Townend Farm, North Street: a well- Brontë family. Built in 1779, the house is a workshop, lit by long mullioned windows

Belle Isle Road

preserved 17th-century house and adjacent modest but dignified and provided a home on the upper floors and with a taking-in Central Park

barn.
5 West Lane, Nos. 21-34: a row of back-
to-back houses, with cellar dwellings on the
street side.
6 The Fold, West Lane: this yard is lined
with cottages. In 1851 there were eight
households here with 52 inhabitants, nine
of them lodgers in a lodging house run by a
handloom weaver.
7 Visitor Information Centre: the Mechanics’
Institute, founded in 1849, originally met
here. In 1894 the Yorkshire Penny Bank
took over the property and added the
short tower and pyramidal roof. The Brontë
Society, founded in 1893, opened its first
for the family from 1820 to 1861. Patrick’s door for goods on the top floor.
successor, the Reverend Wade, added the 16 The Central Board Schools, Butt Lane:
gabled wing in 1878. The house is now the these large school buildings were opened P
Brontë Parsonage Museum, owned and run 17
in 1895 and replaced the denominational
by the Brontë Society. It acts as a research schools which up to that date had provided
and cultural centre and attracts thousands education in Haworth. 15 25
of visitors each year. The museum displays
many original pieces of furniture and house
Lane
Bridge
exhibitions from their extensive Brontë 25 The War Memorial, Bridgehouse: 105
collection. men from Haworth village lost their lives 24
18 et
12 Gauger’s Croft: through the archway in the First World War: their regiments 19 t re
tS
next to Emma’s Café lay Gauger’s Croft. In 22 Woodlands, Sun Street: built by the ec
saw action at the battles of Ypres and the osp
the time of the Brontës, this was a densely Pr
Greenwood family, of Bridgehouse Mills, in Somme. 20
packed area of terraced housing, with 1832. A private drive leads to the house
many cellar dwellings. The houses were 17 Central Park: this opened in 1929 and and after 1867 a bridge was built over the

k Lane
museum in an upper room in 1895. demolished as part of a slum clearance brass band concerts were once performed railway and the Bridgehouse Beck to provide 21
campaign in the 1960s. in a bandstand. direct access to the factory.

18 The Old Hall, Hall Green: the best
surviving 17th-century house in Haworth,
with characteristic mullioned windows,
gritstone masonry and a projecting porch
with a little chamber lit by windows on
three sides. Inside, the main feature is a
large arched kitchen fireplace with a small
opening to an oven on one side.
Ivy Ban
23 Ivy Bank Mills: this mill, now derelict, was
built for worsted spinning in about 1870.
24 Bridge House and Bridgehouse
Mills: Bridge House is a beautiful mid-
18th-century building with sophisticated
architectural features which contrast strongly 23
with the vernacular cottages of the village.

26 Haworth railway station, Station Road:

the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway
opened in 1867 and the original station
13 Main Street: this leads steeply down building survives. Steam trains run from
from the square. On both sides of the Keighley to Oxenhope and the smell of coal

Brid
Sun
street are cottages and shops, some with smoke is an evocative part of the Haworth

Str

ehog
eet
fine shop window surrounds in ashlar. experience.

use
8 The ‘square’: the road widens at the foot ‘Villette’, built in 1853, was originally a lecture

Bec
of the church steps to form a little square. room for the Black Bull, then the Mechanics’

On the upper side, to one side of the old
village stocks, is a short row of shops: No.
121 was the post office in the time of the
Brontës, and No.123 was a temperance
(teetotal) hotel. It was supported by Patrick
Brontë, who was President of Haworth’s
Temperance Society. Opposite is another
row of shops: Rose’s Apothecary, a fine
building with smooth ashlar masonry, was a
chemist’s store in the mid-19th century. Two
sides of the square are lined with inns: the
Black Bull, favoured by Branwell Brontë, and
the Old White Lion, rebuilt in 1858.
9 St Michael and All Angels’ Church and
graveyard: the church was largely rebuilt
in 1879 to replace the building known to
the Brontës. Inside, a stained glass window
commemorates Charlotte and a memorial
tablet records the deaths of the family
Institute and later the Liberal Club. Perhaps
the best shop front belongs to Nos. 75 and
77, a pair of shops built in 1854.
14 Lodge Street (formerly Newell Hill): in
this short fold are the rooms used by the
Three Graces Masonic Lodge and the three-
storey house of William Wood, a joiner, who
made furniture for the Parsonage and the
coffins for the Brontë family.
k
19 Hall Green Baptist Chapel: built in 1824
and retaining a galleried interior and original
pews. The organ was added in 1840.
Next to it in the late 18th century was built
Bridgehouse Mills. Originally water-powered
and used for worsted yarn spinning, steam
power and weaving sheds were added later. 22
Only the frontage buildings survive: these 27 Mill Hey and Brow: Mill Hey was
date from the mid and late 19th century. originally a scatter of cottages near to the
corn mill on the Bridgehouse Beck. Brow
developed after the arrival of the railway
in 1867 to form a settlement distinct from
that of Haworth village on the hill above.
The settlement had chapels, Sunday schools,
20 Victoria Hall, Prospect Street: this shops, a police station and, by the early 20th
meeting hall, in the middle of a terrace of century, two cinemas: the Hippodrome, on 0 100
houses, was built in 1854 by the Oddfellows Belle Isle, of 1913 (now converted to flats)
Friendly Society. and the Bronte, which opened in 1921. metres
To Hebden Bridge To Oxenhope